Cyrano de Bergerac (play)

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Cyrano de Bergerac
Written by	Edmond Rostand
Characters	Cyrano de Bergerac Roxanne Christian
Date of premiere	1897
Original language	French
Genre	Romance
Setting	France, 1640
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Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand based on the life of the real Cyrano de Bergerac. The first four acts are set in 1640, while the fifth is set in 1655. An immediate triumph upon its release, the play is one of the most popular in the French language and has been filmed several times and even made into two operas and a ballet.

The entire play is written in verse, in rhyming couplets of 12 syllables per line, very close to the Alexandrine format, but the verses sometimes lack a caesura. It is also meticulously researched, down to the names of the members of the Académie Française and the dames précieuses glimpsed before the performance in the first scene.

The original Cyrano was Constant Coquelin, who played it over 400 times at Porte-Saint-Martin^[1] and later toured North America in the role. Richard Mansfield was the first actor to play Cyrano in the United States in an English translation. The longest-running Broadway production ran 232 performances in 1923 and starred Walter Hampden, who returned to the role on the Great White Way in 1926, 1928, 1932, and 1936^[2]. He passed the torch to José Ferrer, who won a Tony Award (and a subsequent Academy Award four years later) for playing Cyrano in a 1946 Broadway staging, the highlight of which was a special performance in which Ferrer played the title role for the first four acts and Hampden assumed it for the fifth. Other notable English-speaking Cyranos were Ralph Richardson, DeVeren Bookwalter, Derek Jacobi, Richard Chamberlain, and Christopher Plummer, who played the part in Rostand's original play and won a Tony Award for the 1973 musical adaptation. Kevin Kline played the role in a Broadway production in 2007, with Jennifer Garner playing Roxanne and Daniel Sunjata as Christian.

The play has been translated and performed many times, and is responsible for introducing the word "panache" into the English language.

1 Plot summary
2 Movies and other adaptations
3 Scientific studies
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Hercule Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army, is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a gifted poet and is also shown to be a musician. However, he has an extremely large nose, which is a target for his own self-doubt. This doubt prevents him from expressing his love for his distant cousin, the beautiful Roxanne, as he believes that his ugliness forbids him to "dream of being loved by even an ugly woman."

[edit] Act I – A Performance at the Hôtel Burgundy

The play opens in Paris, 1640, in the theatre of the Hôtel Burgundy. Members of the audience slowly arrive, representing a cross-section of Parisian society from pickpockets to nobility. Christian de Neuvillette arrives with Lignière, who he hopes will identify the young woman with whom he has fallen in love. Lignière recognizes her as Roxanne, and tells Christian about her and Count De Guiche’s scheme to marry her off to the compliant Viscount Valvert. Meanwhile, Ragueneau and Le Bret are expecting Cyrano de Bergerac, who has banished the actor Montfleury from the stage for a month. After Lignière leaves, Christian learns of a plot against him and departs to try to warn him. The play “Clorise” begins with Montfleury’s entrance, and Cyrano disrupts the play, chases him off stage, and compensates the manager for the loss of admission fees. The crowd is about to disperse when Cyrano lashes out at a pesky busybody, then is confronted by Valvert and duels with him while composing a ballade, mortally wounding him as he ends the refrain (as promised). When the crowd has cleared the theater, Cyrano and Le Bret remain behind, and Cyrano confesses his love for Roxanne. Roxanne’s duenna then arrives, and asks where Roxanne may meet Cyrano privately. Lignière is then brought to Cyrano, having learned that one hundred hired thugs are waiting to ambush him on his way home. Cyrano, now emboldened, vows to take on the entire mob single-handed, and he leads a procession of officers, actors and musicians to the Port de Nesle.

[edit] Act II – The Poets’ Cookshop

The next morning, at Ragueneau’s bake shop. Ragueneau supervises various apprentice cooks in their preparations. Cyrano arrives, anxious about his meeting with Roxanne. He is followed by a musketeer, a paramour of Ragueneau’s wife Lise, then the regular gathering of impoverished poets who take advantage of Ragueneau’s hospitality. Cyrano composes a letter to Roxanne, warns Lise about her indiscretion with the musketeer, and when Roxanne arrives he signals Ragueneau to leave them alone. Roxanne and Cyrano talk privately as she bandages his hand (injured from the fracas at the Port de Nesle); she thanks him for defeating Valvert at the theater, and tells him that she is in love with Christian. Roxanne fears for Christian’s safety in the predominantly Gascon company of Cadets, so she asks Cyrano to befriend and protect him. This he agrees to do. After she leaves, Cyrano’s captain arrives with the cadets to congratulate him on his victory from the night before. They are followed by a huge crowd, including De Guiche and his entourage, but Cyrano soon drives them away. Le Bret takes him aside and chastises him for his behavior, but Cyrano responds haughtily. The Cadets press him to tell the story of the fight, teasing the newcomer Christian. When Cyrano recounts the tale, Christian displays his own form of courage by interjecting several times with references to Cyrano’s nose. Eventually Cyrano explodes, the shop is cleared, and Cyrano and Christian now become fast friends. When Cyrano tells Christian that Roxanne expects a letter from him, Christian is despondent, having no eloquence in such matters. Cyrano then offers his services, including his own unsigned letter to Roxanne. The Cadets and others return to find them embracing, and are amazed, but when one of the cadets decides to tease Cyrano about his nose he receives a slap in the face, and the Cadets rejoice.

[edit] Act III – Roxanne’s Kiss

A few days later, outside Roxanne’s house. Ragueneau, having been driven bankrupt, is now Roxanne’s steward, and is talking with the duenna. Cyrano arrives, with two theorbo-playing pages (as the result of winning a bet). Roxanne then emerges, praising Christian’s supposed eloquence. De Guiche then meets with her alone, trying to arrange a rendezvous before he goes off to war; she refuses, but contrives to have the Cadets remain in Paris. De Guiche leaves, Cyrano returns, Roxanne and the duenna then leave, and Cyrano remains to meet Christian and coach him. When Christian does arrive, he refuses Cyrano’s advice, believing that he can woo Roxanne on his own. Roxanne soon returns, and Cyrano retreats, leaving a nervously tongue-tied Christian to founder. Roxanne leaves him outside, thoroughly disgusted with his loss of eloquence, and Cyrano re-emerges. Christian begs for his help, and they contrive to have Christian repeat Cyrano’s word to Roxanne while she is on her balcony; this changes with Cyrano taking Christian’s place to make it easier. In the course of this, a monk arrives looking for Roxanne, and Cyrano sends him in another direction. Cyrano then resumes his wooing of Roxanne for Christian, winning Christian a kiss from her. The monk returns, with a note from De Guiche still trying to meet with her; she makes up a new message, that the monk should marry Roxanne and Christian. While the marriage is being performed in Roxanne’s house, Cyrano delays De Guiche by pretending to be a stranger with a fantastic tale of seven ways of traveling to the moon. (In fact the real-life Cyrano had written The Other World: Society and Government of the Moon, one of the earliest works of science fiction.) When Roxanne and Christian emerge as husband and wife, De Guiche then releases the orders to send the Cadet company to battle. Roxanne makes Cyrano to promise to watch over Christian, and make sure that he writes to her.

[edit] Act IV – The Gascon Cadets

The siege of Arras. The Gascon Cadets are among many French forces now cut off by the Spanish, and they are starving. Cyrano, meanwhile, has been writing in Christian’s name twice a day, smuggling letters across the enemy lines. De Guiche, whom the Cadets despise, arrives and chastises them; Cyrano responds with his usual bravura, and De Guiche then signals a spy to tell the Spanish to attack on the Cadets, informing them that they must hold the line while relief comes in. Then a coach arrives, and Roxanne emerges from it. She tells how she was able to flirt her way through the Spanish lines. Cyrano tells Christian about the letters, and provides him a farewell letter to give to Roxanne if he dies. After De Guiche departs, Roxanne provides plenty of food and drink with the assistance of the coach’s driver, Ragueneau. She also tells Christian that, because of the letters, she has grown to love him for his soul alone, and would still love him even if he were ugly. Christian tells this to Cyrano, and then persuades Cyrano to tell Roxanne the truth about the letters, saying he has to be loved for "the fool that he is" to be truly loved at all. Cyrano disbelieves what Christian claims Roxanne said, until she tells him so as well. But, before Cyrano can tell her the truth, Christian is brought back to the camp, having been fatally shot. Cyrano realizes that, in order to preserve Roxanne's image of an eloquent Christian, he cannot tell her the truth. The battle ensues, a distraught Roxanne collapses and is carried off by De Guiche and Ragueneau, and Cyrano rallies the Cadets to hold back the Spanish until relief arrives.

[edit] Act V – Cyrano’s Gazette

Fifteen years later, at a convent outside Paris. Roxanne now resides here, eternally mourning her beloved Christian. She is visited by De Guiche, Le Bret and Ragueneau, and she expects Cyrano to come by as he always has with news of the outside world. On this day, however, he has been mortally wounded. While he arrives to deliver his “gazette” to Roxanne, it will be his last. Knowing this, he asks Roxanne if he can read "Christian's" farewell letter. She gives it to him, and he reads it aloud as it grows dark. Listening to his voice, she realizes that it is Cyrano who was the author of all the letters, but Cyrano denies this to his death. Ragueneau and Le Bret return, telling Roxanne of Cyrano’s injury. While Cyrano grows delirious, his friends weep and Roxanne tells him that she loves him.

[edit] Movies and other adaptations

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Rostand's play has been the subject of several films, including a 1900 silent movie starring Constant Coquelin, who originally created the role. The film was accompanied by a sound-on-cylinder recording of Coquelin's voice reciting one of Cyrano's speeches^[3]. A 1925 film version starring Pierre Magnier was notable for its laborious hand coloring using the Pathécolor stencil process, in which groundstone glass is cut with a pantograph in the shape of an object to conform with what is on the 35mm print. Unlike many silent films, both of these versions survive and are available on DVD.

The first English-language adaptation to be televised was made in 1938 by the BBC and starred Leslie Banks in one of the earliest live television broadcasts.

The most famous film versions may be the 1950 film starring José Ferrer (for which he won an Academy Award), and the 1990 French-language version, made in color, and starring Gérard Depardieu (who was nominated for the same award), though the Ferrer version made several cuts even in the best-known speeches, as Laurence Olivier did in Hamlet. Ferrer also played the part in Abel Gance's Cyrano et d'Artagnan (1964) and a cartoon version of the play for an ABC Afterschool Special in 1974.

There is also a relatively unknown French-language black-and-white film version made in 1945, starring Claude Dauphin. Posters and film stills give the impression that the set designs and costumes of the 1950 José Ferrer film may have been modeled on those in the 1945 movie. [1]

A comedic Hollywood reinterpretation, Roxanne, starring Steve Martin as a Cyrano-esque fire captain in a modern small town, and Daryl Hannah as Roxanne, was released in 1987.

An episode of the classic 70s sitcom, Three's Company has Jack (John Ritter) cooking dinner for Chrissy's (Suzanne Sommers) date. Chrissy asks Jack to cook the dinner for her and pretend that it's her cooking. Jack tells her, "Oh great, just call me 'Cyrano de Tripper'... I'm cooking to light another guy's fire."

Aru kengo no shogai (literally, "Life of an Expert Swordsman"), is an 1959 samurai film by Hideyo Amamoto based on Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac. The movie airs on American TV stations as "Samurai Saga".

An opera in French, Cyrano de Bergerac, whose libretto by Henri Cain is based on Rostand's words, was composed by the Italian Franco Alfano and was revived by the Metropolitan Opera with Plácido Domingo in the title role.

Victor Herbert wrote an unsuccessful operetta adaptation of the play in 1899. It was one of Herbert's few failures.

Walter Damrosch wrote another operatic adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, which premiered in 1913 at the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1964, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo presented a cartoon adaptation of Cyrano.

In 1973, a musical adaptation by Anthony Burgess, called Cyrano and starring Christopher Plummer, appeared in Boston and then on Broadway. Twenty years later, a Dutch musical stage adaptation was translated into English and produced on Broadway as Cyrano: The Musical. Both the 1973 and 1993 versions were critical and commercial failures.

A condensed version of Rostand's play, in prose, was written by the Scottish writer Tom Gallacher and performed at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre around 1977.

Burgess wrote a new translation and adaptation of Cyrano in 1970, which had its world premiere at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Paul Hecht was Cyrano. Also in the cast were Len Cariou as Christian, and Roberta Maxwell as Roxanna. A later production was the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed 1983 stage production.

On the PBS show Wishbone, it was the story featured in the episode "Cyranose".

The teen movie Whatever It Takes, was loosely based on it.

An episode of the BBC series Blackadder the Third parodies the balcony scene of Cyrano, although the actual episode has nothing to do with the play plotwise.

The Seinfeld episode The Soul Mate appears to parody the balcony scene of Cyrano as Kramer attempts to win over Jerry's girlfriend Pam with Newman's poetry.

A pornographic adaptation titled Cyrano, directed by Paul Norman, was released in 1991.

Frank Langella created a chamber piece simply titled Cyrano.

The 1996 film The Truth About Cats & Dogs has a plot reminiscent of this play.

In the French anime show Code Lyoko the Lyoko gang acts out part of this play at the beginning and end of the episode, Temporary Insanity.

The Brazilian book "A Marca de Uma Lagrima" tells the story of a girl, Isabel, who writes love letters to her cousin, Cristiano, in the name of her best friend Rosana.

The Indian movie "Sapnay" or "Minsaara Kanavu" (1997) is loosely based on this play.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Nth Degree, Dr. Crusher directs a version of this play with Lt. Barclay performing the lead role.

The Blues Traveler song "Sweet Pain" mentions this play.

In an installment of "Monsterpiece Theater" on the children's show Sesame Street, there is a character named "Cyranose", who substitutes a sword with, appropriately, his exaggeratedly long nose. He has a very hot temper and goes ballistic, swinging his nose in blind rage, everytime someone says the word "nose", as he automatically believes they are ridiculing him.

The January 1995 episode of "Boy Meets World" entitled "Cyrano" takes the play as its plot and involves two characters winning a girl secretly for another boy.

The song "Sloppy Love Jingle Pt. 1" by the band Gym Class Heroes references Cyrano.

David Bintley created a ballet Cyrano for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. The world premiere was February 7, 2007.

There is also a filmed ballet version (in color) from the 1950s.

A new translation of the play by Ranjit Bolt opens at Bristol Old Vic in May 2007

In the Roseanne episode titled "Communicable Theater", Jackie, while going through a phase of appreciation to fine arts, is assigned to be Roxanne's understudy while playing a minor character in the show, and then has to play Roxanne having not studied the lines when her performer catches the flu.

The song "Cyrano de Berger's Back" by X is based on the play.

Michigan Opera Theatre will present Cyrano, a world premiere opera by composer David DiChiera, and director/librettist Bernard Uzan, Oct. 13 - 28, 2007 at the Detroit Opera House. Cyrano is a coproduction with the Philadelphia Opera and Florida Grand Opera.A live broadcast on the 28th from radio station WRCJ-FM will present the world premiere.

Sound & Fury, a Los Angeles-based comedy trio, presented their parody of the play, called "Cyranose!" in L.A. at Café-Club Fais Do-Do in September 2007. It was also filmed and released on DVD.

The movie Bigger than the Sky is set around the actors performing a rendition of the play.

This is one of the two plays "performed" during Ken Ludwig's comedic play, Moon Over Buffalo, the other being Private Lives.

In 2007, a contemporary retelling of the tale was made into a movie in Venezuela, with the title "Cyrano Fernández". In this case, Cyrano was disfigured and without the large nose. The movie is set in present times.

[edit] Scientific studies

Pr. Stanley Milgram, a while after his famous Submission to authority experiment, made a study about what he called cyranoïds : people talking to somebody else by just repeating with their own voice what they were dictated in discrete inner earphones. This research was quoted by Omni magazine in the late seventies.